Starting Work and Nursery

Going back to work was never an issue for me, that was when I was going back to my job of five years for two days a week. Things got a little more complicated when we decided to move half way up the country , get new jobs and start full-time. Finding a childminder for Freddie was never an issue as a family friend own a setting that three other family kids have gone to without any issues and My Mum has been kind enough to have Freddie on her two days off each week allowing us to work full-time and reducing childcare costs. I thought it’d be a breeze and go swimmingly but it’s been a hard process and something that we’re all still adjusting to.

Leaving Freddie was hard, I missed him and I didn’t want to him to spend over 7 hours a day with ‘strangers’ but from the feedback we got and the photos we saw he was (still is) having an absolute blast. I always worry that he misses me but the harsh truth is that he doesn’t give a shit. As soon as I hand him over he’s off getting up to all sorts with his mates living the absolute dream. I’m fine with the two days he spends with my Mum, if you haven’t seen already…she vlogs their day so we can all see what they get up to and sometimes Freddie will be in town at lunch time so I get to see him. I’ve still struggled though, I didn’t factor in how daunting starting a whole new job can be. As well as worrying about Freddie and whether he’s settling, I’m getting to know new people, a new role, different tasks, undertaking a qualification and trying to balance working and being a Mum. Half of me desperately wants a career and to be professional me but the other half just wants to spend the rest of my days with Freddie.

During our second week at nursery and work I fell ill due a terrible coil fitting (more about that at a here) after this, Freddie became unwell with a cold, closely followed by a stomach bug. Then, Luke caught the bug and we were all off work and nursery at different times. It wasn’t until the last four days before we all broke up for Christmas that we started to get back into some kind of routine. Freddie had recovered and was thriving at nursery, his speech had come on, he’d started crawling and pulling himself up and we ended the year on a bit of a high; Freddie even made the cutest Christmas Decorations that made me cry. Although everything seemed great, going back to work for the first  week was hard. I spent two hours in bed the night before lying and thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong now that Freddie is mobile which resulted in even less sleep for me and a pretty rough morning.

I got slightly back into the swing of things as the day progressed and started to think about to valuable the nursery / childminding experience is for Freddie – he gets to interact with babies around the same age as  him, he can explore food and enjoy eating without me stressing out  about him joking (I’m much better at this now BTW) He also has an entirely safe environment to practice pulling himself up and walking around unlike our living room with wires and sharp corners in it. He also gets structured play, has his development monitored by professionals and gets to see some other faces. Nursery has been the best thing for him an seeing how he reacts to the nursery staff shows how much love they give him.

Recently, I've cut my hours down to four days a week - I'm proud of the fact that I sort of managed full-time but I realised that I need more time with Freddie and more time at home to get that good work-life balance. Thankfully, I have the most supportive employers who have been completely understanding and appreciative of the fact that I need gnome time. Freddie and I are now going to fill our extra day together with lots of fun and adventures and I'm going to enjoy running around like a little housewife for a day a week. It's ok to find going back to work hard after a baby but it's important to acknowledge when you're struggling and make steps to make life easier and that's exactly what we've done.